“I was already on the way down”: Sebastian Vettel talks about his final years at Ferrari and his relationship with Charles Leclerc in Formula 1.
The relationship with Charles Leclerc and the final Ferrari years: Sebastian Vettel’s confession. The four-time world champion was unable to fulfil his dream of winning the World Championship with the Prancing Horse, as his idol Michael Schumacher had done before him. However, when he looks back on his time in Maranello, he remembers the desire to challenge himself, to beat his rivals, but also “the beginning of the end”, in that difficult 2020 season.
One of the most loved drivers to have raced for the Scuderia, Sebastian Vettel was for years the bright hope of Ferrari fans and Formula 1 enthusiasts. He was the man who, during the period of maximum dominance by Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, could have defeated the British driver and become a true legend of the Prancing Horse. A dream that ultimately fell apart in 2017 and 2018, the best years of his Ferrari spell.
“I arrived in Formula 1 in 2007, and I would say that already in 2010, when I won the championship, I was more or less at my peak,” the German told the Beyond the Grid podcast. “In 2011 I felt even more prepared, and then there were probably very strong years, obviously with winning the four titles. In 2020, however, I was already on the way down. And I’m happy that I can say that now, because in reality I no longer had that final, decisive push inside me.”
Vettel and his relationship with Leclerc at Ferrari
The arrival of Charles Leclerc at Ferrari in 2019 marked an important moment in Sebastian Vettel’s career: “Charles had so much energy. To be honest, I was spoiled – I mean, I had won four championships, I had won so many races, I had taken so many pole positions. The only thing I cared about was winning, and that’s the type of athlete I was.”
“I wanted to win, I wanted the biggest trophy, I wanted that moment on the podium where I knew I had won the race, I wanted the feeling on Monday morning and to say ‘I won the last race and I feel great’, but that feeling never lasts long enough. And then Charles arrived, and when we finished fifth and sixth he was over the moon with a fifth and a sixth place, because it was a different phase of his career and the first time in a competitive car. I think that was when I started to struggle a bit.” – the former Ferrari driver pointed out.
The realisation came with Covid: “Then 2020 arrives, a really strange year. I had the opportunity to take a break and enjoy some time with my family. At the same time, I started to realise that my children were growing up and I became more aware of the problems in our world. I think that was the moment when I went past my peak.”
Leave a Reply